Creating The Devil In Their Own Image

This comment was chosen by Mod HS from the post “International Military Review – Syria, Feb. 18, 2016”. The moderator believes this comment reflects the West’s obsession with President Vladimir Putin and how their media demonizes him. The commenter, mmiriww, responds to the article written by Sharon Tennison. where she shares her thoughts as the Ukraine situation worsened. Unconscionable misinformation and hype was being poured on Russia and Vladimir Putin. Journalists and pundits scoured the Internet and thesauruses to come up with fiendish new epithets to describe both. Wherever Sharon makes presentations across America, she finds the first question ominously asked during Q&A is always, “What about Putin?”.

Comment by mmiriww

Is Putin incorruptible? A U.S. insider’s view of the Russian president’s character and his country’s transformation.

“What about Putin”

It’s time to share my thoughts which follow: Putin obviously has his faults and makes mistakes. Based on my earlier experience with him, and the experiences of trusted people, including U.S. officials who have worked closely with him over a period of years, Putin most likely is a straight, reliable and exceptionally inventive man. He is obviously a long-term thinker and planner and has proven to be an excellent analyst and strategist. He is a leader who can quietly work toward his goals under mounds of accusations and myths that have been steadily leveled at him since he became Russia’s second president. I’ve stood by silently watching the demonization of Putin grow since it began in the early 2000s – – Like others who have had direct experience with this little known man, I’ve tried to no avail to avoid being labeled a “Putin apologist”. If one is even neutral about him, they are considered “soft on Putin” by pundits, news hounds and average citizens who get their news from CNN, Fox and MSNBC.I don’t pretend to be an expert, just a program developer in the USSR and Russia for the past 30 years. But during this time, I’ve have had far more direct, on-ground contact with Russians of all stripes across 11 time zones than any of the Western reporters or for that matter any of Washington’s officials. I’ve been in country long enough to ponder Russian history and culture deeply, to study their psychology and conditioning, and to understand the marked differences between American and Russian mentalities which so complicate our political relations with their leaders. As with personalities in a family or a civic club or in a city hall, it takes understanding and compromise to be able to create workable relationships when basic conditionings are different. Washington has been notoriously disinterested in understanding these differences and attempting to meet Russia halfway.In addition to my personal experience with Putin, I’ve had discussions with numerous American officials and U.S. businessmen who have had years of experience working with him – – I believe it is safe to say that none would describe him as “brutal” or “thuggish”, or the other slanderous adjectives and nouns that are repeatedly used in western media.

I met Putin years before he ever dreamed of being president of Russia, as did many of us working in St.Petersburg during the 1990s. Since all of the slander started, I’ve become nearly obsessed with understanding his character. I think I’ve read every major speech he has given (including the full texts of his annual hours-long telephone “talk-ins” with Russian citizens). I’ve been trying to ascertain whether he has changed for the worse since being elevated to the presidency, or whether he is a straight character cast into a role he never anticipated – – and is using sheer wits to try to do the best he can to deal with Washington under extremely difficult circumstances. If the latter is the case, and I think it is, he should get high marks for his performance over the past 14 years. It’s not by accident that Forbes declared him the most Powerful Leader of 2013, replacing Obama who was given the title for 2012. The following is my one personal experience with Putin.

The year was 1992…

It was two years after the implosion of communism; the place was St.Petersburg. For years I had been creating programs to open up relations between the two countries and hopefully to help Soviet people to get beyond their entrenched top-down mentalities. A new program possibility emerged in my head. Since I expected it might require a signature from the Marienskii City Hall, an appointment was made. My friend Volodya Shestakov and I showed up at a side door entrance to the Marienskii building. We found ourselves in a small, dull brown office, facing a rather trim nondescript man in a brown suit. He inquired about my reason for coming in. After scanning the proposal I provided he began asking intelligent questions. After each of my answers, he asked the next relevant question. I became aware that this interviewer was different from other Soviet bureaucrats who always seemed to fall into chummy conversations with foreigners with hopes of obtaining bribes in exchange for the Americans’ requests. CCI stood on the principle that we would never, never give bribes. This bureaucrat was open, inquiring, and impersonal in demeanor. After more than an hour of careful questions and answers, he quietly explained that he had tried hard to determine if the proposal was legal, then said that unfortunately at the time it was not. A few good words about the proposal were uttered. That was all. He simply and kindly showed us to the door. Out on the sidewalk, I said to my colleague, “Volodya, this is the first time we have ever dealt with a Soviet bureaucrat who didn’t ask us for a trip to the US or something valuable!” I remember looking at his business card in the sunlight – – it read Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

1994

Putin as Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg in the early 90s.

U.S. Consul General Jack Gosnell put in an SOS call to me in St.Petersburg. He had 14 Congress members and the new American Ambassador to Russia, Thomas Pickering, coming to St.Petersburg in the next three days. He needed immediate help. I scurried over to the Consulate and learned that Jack intended me to brief this auspicious delegation and the incoming ambassador. I was stunned but he insisted. They were coming from Moscow and were furious about how U.S. funding was being wasted there. Jack wanted them to hear the “good news” about CCI’s programs that were showing fine results. In the next 24 hours Jack and I also set up “home” meetings in a dozen Russian entrepreneurs’ small apartments for the arriving dignitaries (St.Petersburg State Department people were aghast, since it had never been done before – – but Jack overruled). Only later in 2000, did I learn of Jack’s former three-year experience with Vladimir Putin in the 1990s while the latter was running the city for Mayor Sobchak. More on this further down.

December 31, 1999

With no warning, at the turn of the year, President Boris Yeltsin made the announcement to the world that from the next day forward he was vacating his office and leaving Russia in the hands of an unknown Vladimir Putin. On hearing the news, I thought surely not the Putin I remembered – – he could never lead Russia. The next day a NYT article included a photo. Yes, it was the same Putin I’d met years ago! I was shocked and dismayed, telling friends, “This is a disaster for Russia, I’ve spent time with this guy, he is too introverted and too intelligent – – he will never be able to relate to Russia’s masses.” Further, I lamented: “For Russia to get up off of its knees, two things must happen: 1) The arrogant young oligarchs have to be removed by force from the Kremlin, and 2) A way must be found to remove the regional bosses (governors) from their fiefdoms across Russia’s 89 regions”. It was clear to me that the man in the brown suit would never have the instincts or guts to tackle Russia’s overriding twin challenges.

February 2000

Almost immediately Putin began putting Russia’s oligarchs on edge. In February a question about the oligarchs came up; he clarified with a question and his answer: “What should be the relationship with the so-called oligarchs? The same as anyone else. The same as the owner of a small bakery or a shoe repair shop.” This was the first signal that the tycoons would no longer be able to flaunt government regulations or count on special access in the Kremlin. It also made the West’s capitalists nervous. After all, these oligarchs were wealthy untouchable businessmen – – good capitalists, never mind that they got their enterprises illegally and were putting their profits in offshore banks.

Four months later Putin called a meeting with the oligarchs and gave them his deal: They could keep their illegally-gained wealth-producing Soviet enterprises and they would not be nationalized …. IF taxes were paid on their revenues and if they personally stayed out of politics. This was the first of Putin’s “elegant solutions” to the near impossible challenges facing the new Russia. But the deal also put Putin in crosshairs with US media and officials who then began to champion the oligarchs, particularly Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The latter became highly political, didn’t pay taxes, and prior to being apprehended and jailed was in the process of selling a major portion of Russia’s largest private oil company, Yukos Oil, to Exxon Mobil. Unfortunately, to U.S. media and governing structures, Khodorkovsky became a martyr (and remains so up to today).

March 2000

I arrived in St.Petersburg. A Russian friend (a psychologist) since 1983 came for our usual visit. My first question was, “Lena what do you think about your new president?” She laughed and retorted, “Volodya! I went to school with him!” She began to describe Putin as a quiet youngster, poor, fond of martial arts, who stood up for kids being bullied on the playgrounds. She remembered him as a patriotic youth who applied for the KGB prematurely after graduating secondary school (they sent him away and told him to get an education). He went to law school, later reapplied and was accepted. I must have grimaced at this, because Lena said, “Sharon in those days we all admired the KGB and believed that those who worked there were patriots and were keeping the country safe. We thought it was natural for Volodya to choose this career. My next question was, “What do you think he will do with Yeltsin’s criminals in the Kremlin?” Putting on her psychologist hat, she pondered and replied, “If left to his normal behaviors, he will watch them for a while to be sure what is going on, then he will throw up some flares to let them know that he is watching. If they don’t respond, he will address them personally, then if the behaviors don’t change – – some will be in prison in a couple of years.” I congratulated her via email when her predictions began to show up in real time.

Throughout the 2000s

St.Petersburg’s many CCI alumni were being interviewed to determine how the PEP business training program was working and how we could make the U.S. experience more valuable for their new small businesses. Most believed that the program had been enormously important, even life changing. Last, each was asked, “So what do you think of your new president?” None responded negatively, even though at that time entrepreneurs hated Russia’s bureaucrats. Most answered similarly, “Putin registered my business a few years ago”. Next question, “So, how much did it cost you?” To a person they replied, “Putin didn’t charge anything”. One said, “We went to Putin’s desk because the others providing registrations at the Marienskii were getting ‘rich on their seats.’”

Late 2000

Into Putin’s first year as Russia’s president, US officials seemed to me to be suspect that he would be antithetical to America’s interests – – his every move was called into question in American media. I couldn’t understand why and was chronicling these happenings in my computer and newsletters.

Year 2001

Jack Gosnell (former USCG mentioned earlier) explained his relationship with Putin when the latter was deputy mayor of St.Petersburg. The two of them worked closely to create joint ventures and other ways to promote relations between the two countries. Jack related that Putin was always straight up, courteous and helpful. When Putin’s wife, Ludmila, was in a severe auto accident, Jack took the liberty (before informing Putin) to arrange hospitalization and airline travel for her to get medical care in Finland. When Jack told Putin, he reported that the latter was overcome by the generous offer, but ended saying that he couldn’t accept this favor, that Ludmila would have to recover in a Russian hospital. She did – – although medical care in Russia was abominably bad in the 1990s.

A senior CSIS officer I was friends with in the 2000s worked closely with Putin on a number of joint ventures during the 1990s. He reported that he had no dealings with Putin that were questionable, that he respected him and believed he was getting an undeserved dour reputation from U.S. media. Matter of fact, he closed the door at CSIS when we started talking about Putin. I guessed his comments wouldn’t be acceptable if others were listening.

Another former U.S. official who will go unidentified, also reported working closely with Putin, saying there was never any hint of bribery, pressuring, nothing but respectable behaviors and helpfulness.

I had two encounters in 2013 with State Department officials regarding Putin:

At the first one, I felt free to ask the question I had previously yearned to get answered: “When did Putin become unacceptable to Washington officials and why? Without hesitating the answer came back: “‘The knives were drawn’ when it was announced that Putin would be the next president.” I questioned WHY? The answer: “I could never find out why – – maybe because he was KGB.” I offered that Bush #I, was head of the CIA. The reply was, “That would have made no difference, he was our guy.”

The second was a former State Department official with whom I recently shared a radio interview on Russia. Afterward when we were chatting, I remarked, “You might be interested to know that I’ve collected experiences of Putin from numerous people, some over a period of years, and they all say they had no negative experiences with Putin and there was no evidence of taking bribes”. He firmly replied, “No one has ever been able to come up with a bribery charge against Putin.”

From 2001 up to today, I’ve watched the negative U.S. media mounting against Putin …. even accusations of assassinations, poisonings, and comparing him to Hitler. No one yet has come up with any concrete evidence for these allegations. During this time, I’ve traveled throughout Russia several times every year, and have watched the country slowly change under Putin’s watch. Taxes were lowered, inflation lessened, and laws slowly put in place. Schools and hospitals began improving. Small businesses were growing, agriculture was showing improvement, and stores were becoming stocked with food. Alcohol challenges were less obvious, smoking was banned from buildings, and life expectancy began increasing. Highways were being laid across the country, new rails and modern trains appeared even in far out places, and the banking industry was becoming dependable. Russia was beginning to look like a decent country – – certainly not where Russians hoped it to be long term, but improving incrementally for the first time in their memories.

My 2013/14 Trips to Russia Modern Russia, thriving

In addition to St.Petersburg and Moscow, in September I traveled out to the Ural Mountains, spent time in Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Perm. We traveled between cities via autos and rail – – the fields and forests look healthy, small towns sport new paint and construction. Today’s Russians look like Americans (we get the same clothing from China). Old concrete Khrushchev block houses are giving way to new multi-story private residential complexes which are lovely. High-rise business centers, fine hotels and great restaurants are now common place – – and ordinary Russians frequent these places. Two and three story private homes rim these Russian cities far from Moscow. We visited new museums, municipal buildings and huge super markets. Streets are in good repair, highways are new and well marked now, service stations looks like those dotting American highways. In January I went to Novosibirsk out in Siberia where similar new architecture was noted. Streets were kept navigable with constant snowplowing, modern lighting kept the city bright all night, lots of new traffic lights (with seconds counting down to light change) have appeared. It is astounding to me how much progress Russia has made in the past 14 years since an unknown man with no experience walked into Russia’s presidency and took over a country that was flat on its belly.

So why do our leaders and media demean and demonize Putin and Russia???

Like Lady MacBeth, do they protest too much?

Psychologists tell us that people (and countries?) project off on others what they don’t want to face in themselves. Others carry our “shadow” when we refuse to own it. We confer on others the very traits that we are horrified to acknowledge in ourselves.

Could this be why we constantly find fault with Putin and Russia?

Could it be that we project on to Putin the sins of ourselves and our leaders?

Could it be that we condemn Russia’s corruption, acting like the corruption within our corporate world doesn’t exist?

Could it be that we condemn their human rights and LGBT issues, not facing the fact that we haven’t solved our own?

Could it be that we accuse Russia of “reconstituting the USSR” – – because of what we do to remain the world’s “hegemon”?

Could it be that we project nationalist behaviors on Russia, because that is what we have become and we don’t want to face it?

Could it be that we project warmongering off on Russia, because of what we have done over the past several administrations?

There is a well known code of ethics among us: Is it the Truth, Is it Fair, Does it build Friendship and Goodwill, and Will it be Beneficial for All Concerned?

It seems to me that if our nation’s leaders would commit to using these four principles in international relations, the world would operate in a completely different manner, and human beings across this planet would live in better conditions than they do today.

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Boy, did the West have Putin wrong. I too am guilty of having a negative view of him. But they came from media outlets and so-called “Putin experts”, who were only spewing propaganda. Now I see Putin as one who truly loves his country and wishes to see it progress in economic, spiritual and moral ways. Those are the differences between Putin and ALL of the leaders of the West. They are FAR more corrupt than Putin can ever be.

It’s hard to write at times like these when we may be on a brink of a Third and Maybe Terminal World War – when the entire Human Race maybe destroyed…but I just wrote this (already banned from Craig Murray’s website…come on Craig…what is so wrong about this…I do not know anything..I have been retired for over 10 years..I would like to do another 20 yet…Why did you or your Moderators deleted this??? It is not that heavy…)

You know, the 10 years I spent in China was much the same. While the press was banging on and on about goons and thugs I witnessed a country being transformed from a world of mud and shit into a fairly decent place where the people are fat and happy. Of course there are problems. Of course there is corruption And oppression I’ve seen it up close, but it’s getting better. Is China a police state? It has to be, look at their enemies. Look at their past.

I think it was telling that the expats there were often talking about how they would love to go home but within a few months they were clamouring to get back to China. Except for the pollution the quality of life was good.

I still read the NYT or whatnot about China and in every story there is a smear. I recently met one of the poobahs of establishment journalism. I soon realised he was in total denial about the success of China. It is becoming what the west is supposed to be and is doing so under competent leadership. Leadership the sock puppets in our elected assemblies consistently fail to deliver.

China has lots of big problems but every year it is getting better. In the west the problems are getting worse. We are not building anything, we are feasting on a corpse.

I read her articles back a year or so ago.And was hugely impressed by her portrait of Putin. A friend gave me a link to a couple of stories from a Russian on Putin that I think explains Russians feelings about Putin,I was extremely impressed by them (and by Putin):

“Putin is the man who brought order from chaos, Russians genuinely love him for it, and they’d be insane not to.

Yeah, you hear a lot about “Russian opposition” on outlets such as Radio Free Europe (AKA “Voice of Langley”), but that’s roughly comparable to North Koreans complaining that communists are being oppressed in the USA.
By now, pro-Western neoliberals went from masters of the country to being despised by 95% of the population (mere 65,000 supporters voted in the election for United Opposition Council [1]) .

WHAT THIS MEANS

So, Putin did some positive things in the past; does this mean Putin’s government is a good thing for Russia going forward?
…
How would I know? Ask somebody else – I’m not an economist.
Actually, don’t ask an economist, either – the Russian ones ruined USSR, and the Western ones orchestrated the post-USSR implosion of Russia.

I am a translator who can tell you what people think right now, what’s happening; an amateur historian who can tell you what people used to think and what happened back in the day. As for how to use this improved understanding – that I leave up to you.

Without further ado…

=========================================
Part One

STORY ONE

One day Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ Putin was speaking to his people. He stood in a suit against a brown wall. Beside him was a Russian flag. A red light is came on on the camera. Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ sighed.

– It is difficult and painful to talk – he began his speech – Our land just had a terrible tragedy. In the past few days, each of us felt with all his heart the events that happened in the Russian town of Beslan. There we faced not simple murderers, but those who slaughtered defenseless kids. And now I’m sending my words of support and empathy to those who have lost the most precious thing in life. Lost their children, their relatives and friends. I ask everyone that you remember
those who perished at the hands of terrorists in recent days.

Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ fell silent.

– In the history of Russia there were many tragic and difficult events – he continued after a pause, – We live in the aftermath of a collapse of a huge, great state. A state that was not viable in a rapidly changing world.
But, despite all the difficulties, we managed to keep the core of this giant together. And we called this new country – Russian Federation.

We all expected changes. Changes for the better. But we were totally unprepared for many of them. Why? I … I do not know. I’m doing everything right, you know, working with documents, meeting with foreign heads of state, giving out money for defense… changing corrupt ministers one after another. And it’s all the same – the money gets stolen, the police take bribes, foreign countries don’t respect us… So I’m told we should, like, strengthen our borders. That it is necessary to allocate money and buy new equipment. Tell me, what do I do? If I do not allocate money – you will say that I’m not doing anything. And if I do – they will pile on it like rats on a garbage bin, steal it all, and no border would get built anyway. There are lines by the police stations and courts – waiting for me to fire all the corrupt officials, to immediately take their place and demand, demand, demand even more bribes…

Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ paused and lowered his eyes.

– Of course, I can now say that it’s all because of international terrorism that wants to destroy Russia. – He said, a little hesitantly, – Well, if I say that, what changes? You still won’t fight. You do not send your sons to the army, because there is hazing. But hazing is also done by your sons, why aren’t you screaming about that? Huh?

Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ stared at the camera.

– You’re all waiting for me to protect you , – Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ said firmly.

– There are hundred and fifty million of you, and one of me. How do I protect you if you are only drinking vodka and watching football? You have chosen me, put me in a golden cage, and now you’re looking – can he get out of this situation? He can’t? Well he’s a bad president then!
Why did you vote for me if I’m so bad?

Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ wiped his presidential nose.

– I have nothing to protect you with – he said – You yourselves have destroyed everything I could use. I do not have governors, just thieves and anti-Semites. I have no army, because no one wants to serve. I have no weapons, because the generals sold them to build their mansions.
I have nothing, and it was all stolen long before I became president. I can’t even put all thieves and corrupt politicians to jail, because when I try to do it – you start yelling: hands off our oligarchs, hands off our governors! And you yourselves steal from your jobs, don’t pay taxes, and only demand, demand, demand. Benefits, pensions, cheap vodka, cheap beer, cheap gas …

Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ paused and touched the national flag hanging next to him. Then he looked into the camera.

– Yes, we are at war – he said, – Yes, if we want to end this war, we can only do it together. I am the same as you. And just like you, I don’t know what to do. And just like you, I know that the police take bribes, that politicians are only trying to get rich, that the army is used as free construction workers, that oligarchs steal oil and do not pay taxes, that the feds in Chechnya rob people, that everything is rotten and falling apart. This is not the fault of some special people, my
people. This is you. All of you. All around me. And I’m the same as you.
Do you not understand?

Vladimir Vladimirovich ™ raised his left eyebrow.

– Guys, do you not understand – he said quietly into the camera – that WE have declared this war upon ourselves?

[As an aside – the story above is basically applicable to every head of state ever. It is easy to attribute everything that happens to the will of the big man on TV, but in reality, individual officials have far less power than you’d think.]”http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=604_1453786018

I remember Perestroika well. Marlboro cigs for 1.50 appeared at our supermarket, and we smoked them enthusiastically, sitting in the gazebo at the neighboring playground. The taste of them was magical – far, far better than the Soviet “Kosmos” for 0.70. The future as adults was no longer certain, but also seemed magical through the smoke, like in an American movie.
It took me many years to realize why we thought that…

And then everybody was suddenly into politics. Intellectuals all started hating on long-dead Stalin, the Communists refused to compromise, popular newspapers would constantly publish this or that “historic discovery”. When I returned from the army, and first saw people standing in lines for some crap cigs from Bulgaria, which were rationed to boot, I first found myself feeling [as a character in a bad comedy, and not Hollywood movie]. But even then, I still did not understand.

That happened later – I stepped into adult life, and understood how the world works. At one point, watching dumb mugs on TV struggle under the weight of arrogance and inability to form coherent sentences became unbearable. How can those “democrats” run the country, if they can’t even organize their own thoughts? By the time Yeltsin’s tanks shelled their Parliament, I already wasn’t interested – politics turned into a murky sideshow which only occasionally had some effect in real life.

Meanwhile, real life went into full “rat race” mode, chasing money above all, with brief breaks to celebrate small victories that seem ridiculous by today’s standards. Strolling across flea markets, filled with brand-name clothes all of a sudden. Flashing across night-time roads on my first “beamer”. Endless ruins moving past the train windows, [the country’s factories and infrastructure – sold to murky investors for pennies on the dollar, and immediately scrapped for a quick buck -] stretching all the way from Moscow to St. Pete.

It would be wrong to say that we weren’t [celebrating freedom]. After all, freedom is when rules and restrictions disappear, right? There was even a children’s book like this – “A holiday of Disobedience”, [about children who were left to do as they please by their parents, and how short-lived their euphoria was]. That’s exactly what happened – after the official dismantling of the state, it slowly disappeared from people’s heads. Nobody was left to establish order, and the rules were set by those who have managed to steal something big, or bribe their way into government positions.

The whole country played Cowboys and Indians. There were no cops – except those men in blue uniforms who existed solely to collect bribes on highways, and pass almost all of their loot higher up the ladder. Everyone lied and stole. Some guys were dodging the draft, some were stealing from their jobs, nobody I knew paid any taxes.
Yes, a lot of it started back when USSR went off track. But in Soviet times, people still obeyed most laws. They went to official jobs, had apartments they legally owned, etc. Yes, even back then some people bought stuff on the black market and could pay a bribe for a driver’s license exam, but those who did that were a tiny minority. Slightly more people nicked stuff from work, but in general it was something insignificant. Most people could honestly say they were good, upstanding citizens. Plus the “real men” of the WWII generation were still around.

And then, in a few years, the whole country and all its inhabitants became lawless and illegitimate. Getting a fake stamp in your Social Security or visa paperwork became a common thing. You could pay off anyone – the judge, the fire department, the EPA. Businesses completely ignored the government and produced fake financial statements with unbelievable numbers, which worked because the tax collectors knew everything, and were overlooking it for a small sum. Those who made money by illegally taking over and looting businesses were heroes on TV, and kids in kindergartens didn’t play Cops vs Robbers – just Robbers vs Robbers [2].

And I was an integral part of this lawlessness. I fudged our accounting books and didn’t think anything of it. I paid wages under the table and casually handed out bribes when I needed to register our semi trucks or buy off a tax inspector. I was kicking out contractors that used my shops to sell their own goods. I smuggled in everything, without a second thought – importing legally did not make sense, we would not be able to compete. I even drove around a car that was imported illegally, and simply bought it back for $100 each time it was impounded. I laundered money via fictional companies, and created legal entities using the identities of hobos from the street. Put forged stamps on forged invoices. I moved cash by the trash bag, and even bought an illegal handgun just in case. I was friends with the mafia guys who were protecting my business, and tagged along when they had “matters to discuss” with rivals.

Show this text to any businessman who worked [in Russia] in the 90s, and he will confirm that this was “business as usual” for the period, even fairly tame by that time’s standard. Politics did not concern men like me at all – it only affected us if the dollar exchange rate jumped, otherwise we only cared about cash and showing off, that’s it.

But often, during drunk arguments among ourselves, we inevitably ended up discussing “who is to blame and what needs to be done.” And we soon understood that the end is [extremely freaking nigh], and there is no way out. We were the illegal and illegitimate residents of a sinking ship, and our actions were sinking it further. No one stood at the steering wheel or accepted any responsibility for what was happening, and no one showed any desire to do anything. Those who were smart looted as much as they could, and fled abroad. The rest were facing the abyss.

I totally missed when we got a new president – I tuned out of politics after the elections in ’96. All I remember was Yeltsin’s heart troubles, and then immediately – “Kursk” sinking. By that time, my business collapsed, so I had the time to watch the tragedy as it unfolded on TV – especially closely, because I served around the same area.
And since I am a mind reader, I can tell you one secret – I know what Putin thought when he was staring down into the sea from that warship. Many remember that moment, but do not understand what was happening there. And Putin was thinking exactly the same thing as I. That there is no way out, and it’s not just one sub sinking – the whole country is going down. And then he thought the same thing as my friends – that he just needs to grab what he can, and run.
When Putin holds the next open Q&A session – someone ask him, he will confirm that’s God’ honest truth.

If you think I described the looming collapse to explain why I admire Putin for saving the country – you are mistaken. Although, yes, he really did save us all.
But my support of Putin comes from what happened after the 90s.

After some time, my friend and I reopened our business. Or rather, he reopened it, and I joined a bit later.
First, I asked him out of habit – which mafia group protects us? And he says – none. If we have problems, we call the police. Wow, that was a surprise.
Next, we had to bring some stuff from China. We go to a familiar broker, who used to connect us with smugglers – he tells us that smuggling and forged documents are no longer in style. So we registered officially and began to transport goods through customs, legally. Then we did an audit and straightened out the accounting. Started paying salaries through the bank, not in laundered cash. Leased a legally imported semi, then another one.
After the endless tricks and trying to cheat the system in the 90s, working legally was unbelievably straightforward.

Not everything works well, of course, and still some things are done under the table. Say, we need to win a government contract to stay in business, and we need to bribe somebody to get it. Then we pay. And due to the crisis, we had to re-start paying some of the salaries in laundered cash, to stay afloat. But the money laundering is becoming so expensive, soon it would be cheaper to simply pay taxes.
Anyway, all of these things are merely exceptions that prove the main point. Somehow, suddenly – it turned out that there are some rules to doing business, after all. And there is someone who tries to make them the same for everyone. And you can work within these rules, and consider yourself an honest citizen.

I would say more – in fact, I used to break the rules mostly not because it was necessary, but because I wanted to get rich quickly and live an opulent life. But that mass hysteria – it gripped half the people in the country. Those who stayed immune to it [got pushed to the bottom] – but that immunity among the poorest people may be what saved us, in the end.

I am far from blindly attributing all of this to Putin. In fact, no one knows exactly how and why these changes came about, and if they would still happen if Yeltsin stuck around. A rigorous scientist would say such questions can’t be answered without a controlled experiment, and such experiments are not possible.

But it is quite clear to me that Putin himself had a choice – to “smash and grab” like so many before him, or to take responsibility – and he chose the latter, even though it seemed completely hopeless.
Therefore, when the “liberal opposition” started their litany of accusations against Putin, I could not agree with them calling him a thief and an enemy of the nation. If all he wanted was to steal and destroy, nothing could be simpler. Simply sit back [and let liberals run the country], like Yeltsin did.

And the reason I finally made up my mind and completely sided with Putin was… taxes.
They became kind of a diagnosis, a litmus test.
When Putin-haters rant to me that “Putin’s bunch are criminals and thieves”, I ask – do YOU or your business pay taxes – and they always respond with sincere indignation.
They say things like “Why should I pay, when they can not make an online registration system, and I have to stand in a huge line to get a land ownership certificate? Why should I pay if the bureaucrats steal most of it? Why should I pay, if they can’t repair the road to my summer house, and I have to kill the suspension on my car? And why should I pay these bastards, if they would use the money to further oppress the Russian people?!”

No one, not a single one of government-haters I know, pays even half of what they should. How can the government pay for a new registration system, for the anti-corruption task force, or for fixing the roads, if no one gives them any money – they can’t even comprehend that question.

One Putin-hater I know hasn’t found an honest job in 20 years, because he can only BS people and take a cut of someone else’s profits. So he hangs around people who are doing business, and tries to act as an extra step in the supply chain via knowing “who to grease.” Naturally, he hasn’t paid any taxes whatsoever since the fall of USSR – although he sure carried a lot of bribes from one part of the chain to the other.
Who do you think was the first among in my social networks to re-post Navalny’s movie accusing Prosecutor General of corruption[3]? Yep, him. He even added some scathing political commentary.

And I had to explain to another one of my buddies, who spent his entire adult life working as an unregistered construction contractor, that his daughter’s tuition at school and college did not come out of some abstract “state budget”, but out of my pocket specifically. Because my business pays taxes, and his does not. Do you think he stopped hating on the government after that? Of course not – now he simply hates me along with Putin. And I understand why – people like that need to shift blame elsewhere, in order to justify leeching off of the rest of us.

Check among the people you know, if you like. To me, the nature of this conflict is clear. Those who seek to play by the rules – those support the state and Putin. In nothing else, because any rules are better than no rules. And those who prefer to cheat the system – they are against the government. And to hide why they do it, they switch the cause of their actions. [4]
First, they do not pay taxes and such – simply out of greed, like me in the ’90s. And only then they start hating the state, as a justification. But they always tell you the opposite, that they don’t pay out of principle.

If “Putin’s trolls” really do exist, I gift this text to their bosses. Use it however you like, and the money you save on writers can be given to the regular trolls as a bonus [5]. Let it be a small atonement for the damage I caused to our motherland back in the 90s.

=============================

NOTES

[1] Considering elections were open to all comers, we can assume about ~130 million voters… Which means only one in 2 thousand Russians cares about any of the opposition parties. To put it in perspective, it means there are probably less than 100 eligible voters who would support an opposition candidate in an average-sized city of a ~200,000 people. Which also explains why liberals haven’t won any elections at any level in quite a while.

(Of course, there are plenty of people who are not involved in politics, yet still support opposition and/or dislike the government, but virtually any survey shows them to be a tiny minority.)

[2] Young guys who grew up in the 90s saw TV praise people like Mavrodi – the guy who ran an enormous pyramid scheme, defrauded an estimated 10-15 million ordinary Russians, married a supermodel and evaded justice, living in Moscow until 2003.

Young guys growing up today see TV praise people like the two Donbass militiamen who, at a critical moment during the Slavyansk siege, kept firing their 1930s anti-tank rifles point-blank at 1980s model tanks – and died in their foxhole, but stopped the attack.

[3] Navalny, probably the most famous Russian opposition activist, recently published a movie that shows that the son of Chaika, the Prosecutor General of Russia, has some very expensive real estate registered under his name.
There are two ironic footnotes to be made here.
First, Navalny himself was convicted of corruption – as detailed above, being a businessman in Russia isn’t a clean job, but it does rather hint at “pot calling the kettle black”.
Second, the reason Navalny even found out about Chaika’s son’s properties is that the documents are clear and publicly available – so this whole matter is a consequence of the previously untouchable elite starting to obey the rules.

[4] This childish belief in “getting something from nothing” is, of
course, not limited to Russian liberals. The old adage “we just have to
keep chanting the slogans of RFE/Marx/Mohammed and throwing bricks at
the cops, and we will become prosperous” resurfaces anywhere where
people think they are owed a better life, and is at the core of every
revolution – liberal, communist, religious, etc.
Ironically, the
activists at the core of Russian opposition, Ukrainian Maidan coup, or
“progressive” social protests in Arab countries, have a lot more in
common with their supposed arch-enemies (the Communists / the islamic
extremists, respectively) than with the supporters of the legitimate
government.

[5] No comment :).
Just kidding, I would be seriously surprised if Russia doesn’t run some sort of covert PR actions online, but I would doubt it is as dumb as commonly described in newspaper articles (running a couple dozen third-rate Russian-language blogs on the same LJ platform, out of a single building in St. Pete).
Anyone I collaborated with appears to be doing translations/reporting as a hobby.

If you look at the US, it was just as lawless, until the fed came about and started their private mercenary force called the IRS. Every year they create more and more rules and close loopholes etc so the average person has no choice but to pay up.. Corporations are different.. But the people cant get away with anything now. Even if you die, they will go after your closest relative no matter if you are blood enemies.. I think the change came when Putin forced them to arrest some tax evaders and it just snowballed from there. No one wanted to go to jail..

Also remember, al capone went to jail for tax evasion.. Not for being a criminal.. He did not pay his taxes and could not show how he made the money to live in such luxury.. They caught many, good and bad using taxes.. Sometimes changing rules on the fly to get the guy they were after..

We want to thank South Front for this amazing video, perfectly timed. The Syrian government has notified us that they believe that Turkey intendeds to send an armored force into Syria on Monday. The US, Britain and France, have refused to stand behind any negotiations and have buckled under to Erdogan’s pressure by opposing Russian moves at the UN.

They failed to understand the wider threat, that Turkey is not just moving on Russia but extending its influence into Europe, rebuilding the Ottoman empire where real gains can be made, into the Caucasus, the Caspian region and the Balkans.

Thus, the refugee crisis staged entirely by Turkey is taking down the EU, peeling Greece away, collapsing it economically and politically while Turkey begins its incursions across the Aegean by air to begin, more to come.

As the situation in Ukraine increasingly destabilizes, Turkey is sending in ISIS fighters, military advisors, weapons and working closely with Kiev on the manufacture and development of biological and chemical weapons to use against not just Russia, as has been reported in New Eastern Outlook’s series, now carried by the Guardian as well, on the Lugar Lab in Tbilisi, center for Turkish bio-warfare development.

I saved me a copy and bookmarked it (just in case Mr. Putin-hater who calls me “Martin from Capitalist East-Berlin” returns).

I have the gut feeling that he is this man, that’s why I defend him against trolls.
(maybe in that aspect I’m indeed like Putin, as this anonymous poster always said, but not by leading the Forbes list of the riches men).

Some persons with no other information fall in to the trap to believe the stories that he is a corrup Multi-Billionaire only interested in rescuing the Oligrachs.

How ridiculous that is!
It is simply yet another Western Oligarch’s “HOLD THE THIEF!” and the less somebody knows, processes, realizes, figures or understands, the larger is the liklihood that this person falls into such a trap. To label Putin “Oligarch” is equally as braindead as Turkey’s joke that “Russia is supporting ISIS”.

Certainly he also has mistakes, like every human.
It would be nice if he would believe less in Capitalism. It is not only a failed model (!!! not Communism is, as always claimed), but at the same time failed to re-industrialzie Russia after Yeltsin.
But constructive criticism is never brought up against VVP. Instead completely distorted made up fiction stories turning facts upside down.

Last weeks they spread all across the world that “Putin uses the migration weapon to destabilize Europe”. Then they always bundle these stories with some photoshopped images depicting him like a lunatic. But of course: The Russian press “reports in a biased manner”, yeeeeeeep, sure.

Unfortunately such jokes are not funny, but smell like war.
In fact even Nazi-Propaganda outlets (that I covered in school) like The Stormer (Der Stuermer) did not invent 30% as many lies, as any average western newspaper of TV mouthpiece does nowadays, all across the westernized globe.

We really don’t need such articles to know a person after all there are tens of thousands praising the western leaders like merkel and if you read any of my comments about her both her and that French have the lowest opinion I could have even that lying sack ayatollah Obama has a higher one.. That’s because we can easily see the actins of such people and if they can do a couple of them they can do a lot more hidden in the shadows. I might be wrong about the ayatollah but that is not because he is such a great guy but I think he is trying to leave a legacy in the history books. Now people are going to say he got the peace prize because of cuba and iran.. and the droner will get away with it. Anyone who gets his kicks out of droning 14 year olds in the desert don’t deserve any prize. But that’s revisionist history.. At least 2 countries that would have ended up like Libya now can rest easier for a while. I never seen Putin make threats. Compared to the lowest forms of yuropeans now that is something that sure stands out and it tells a lot about the person.. I think of the top 50 world leaders, Putin might be the only one that has not made any threats. Well he did make one threat when the plane was blown up but that was in the context of law and justice.. Maybe the Chinese are also taking a cue from this but you never know with the Chinese since it is not the top guy who makes threats but their policy bureau. It is easy to make threats when you have a million followers these days and it is cheap..

This article was published, I think here at Saker, a year or so ago, an unforgettable breath of fresh air. I think our dear writer has added the rhetorical questions at the end that truly indict the scurrilous US criminal cabal.

I posted part of it before but she posted the entire article again on another site and I copied it here without the usual cutting.. I did not know her name at the time and she signed it as Sharon Tennison.. but there was no signature in the smaller article. I had no idea she was American or that she worked with us aid or the state department in which case I would not even have bothered to read it…

Guess sometimes it is beneficial to not let others know much about you..

This is a great article and reinforces my opinion that Putin is much maligned and is probably the most admirable leader on the world stage today. The competition isn’t great.
On another issue the news in New Zealand recently made a big fuss about Fiji receiving a donation of armaments from Russia. The implication was that this heralded an expansionist Russia now active in the Pacific. My feeling was that it was assistance to the Fiji military as they earn very welcome overseas funds by hiring themselves out to the United Nations for peace keeping missions. A further twist was added when the reporter claimed Fiji had paid for the weapons.
Does anyone have more information on this deal.

He is already the greatest world leader since Bismark. We can only hope the bastards don’t manage to ‘take him out’ which they surely will given half a chance. In simple terms Putin offers freedom to all of us which will be resisted at any cost (some of which we’re already seeing).

There’s probably an element of projection, but I suspect the key reason the ‘knives have been out’ since the beginning has been mentioned a number of times in the piece: Putin doesn’t take bribes. And was fairly clearly, from the beginning, a patriotic nationalist.

The US is in the business of empire. They really don’t like it when countries they want to dominate are run by non-corrupt people who will not take their bribes. Worse still if the basic agenda of those people is the advancement of their country. Presidents of places like Russia are supposed to run their countries for US benefit. Ideally they should be corrupt, and their corruption and the bad policies they pursue for the US should make them weak so they are easily replaceable if they get ideas. Everything about Putin is wrong, wrong, wrong from a US imperial viewpoint, and a clever US imperialist would have been able to predict that just from his record as a non-corrupt bureaucrat.

My initial perceptions of Putin – completely ignorant, as I knew nothing other than fleeting impressions from media – were of a cartoonish KGB ‘thug.’

Then came the Ukraine crisis.

In less than four weeks, my perceptions – now got from reading about events in the Donbass directly in social media – underwent a complete volte face. I found myself experiencing a mounting fury with the grotesque demonization of him in the Western media. Such complete and utter defamation, it was as if it was happening to me!!

If it took so little time for someone as tabula rasa ignorant as me to radically alter my perceptions, how did all those who had experience of Putin, as well as knowledge of contemporary Russia ever believe he was some kind of Russian ‘Merkel’ or ‘Hollande’ they could either blackmail or bribe?

One of the features of the pathology of narcissism, is a hubristic belief in psychological acuity. But it really boils down to the assumption that everyone has their price, not insight.

Putin is not for sale.

That was the error of the globalists.

And so he is, for Russia, truly priceless.

May I add, Eimar, I think your last three sentences are brilliant. Thankyou. Mod. PS

Thanks for this. I’m not sure who wrote what or where they’re coming from. But whatever the truth of the matter, I need to think there is at least one good man left.

I hate the lies upon lies upon lies. I have even begun hating myself for my lies. Mine are hopefully “little white lies” compared to the big ones out there. Sometimes I feel so bad I just want to quit.

I guess I like Dylan because he’s so bad just like me. A complete sell-out just like me. A hypocrite just like me.

“Your long time curse hurts
But what’s worse
Is this pain in here
Ain’t it clear that
I just can’t fit
I believe it’s time for us to quit”

“There’s a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair”

“I hate myself for loving you
And the weakness that it showed
You were just a painted face
On a trip down Suicide Road”

Don’t tell me about the real Putin. I don’t want to hear it.

Let me alone with Putin the Man, the one I need to see, the one inside of me.

Astounding! Her take on Putin is mine, exactly. A listener, quiet, relaxed and keenly, committed, right there. I understand his comment ‘he collects people’, often by what they write.

The US killed my younger son, a devoted artist as SCAD in Savannah,Georgia because of the oil underground, under-ocean 2010 Gulf cave of it erupting out for weeks unstopped .BP used Corexit to make the oil covering the top of the whole Gulf sink to the bottom although Corexit would kill all sealife for generatios, if not hundreds of years. Jimmie Allen Higgins a magical photographer was out on the beach outside Savannah every day of 2010 photographing. He died of massive Heavy Metals poisoning on Dec 12th, 2013. He was carefully poisoned with the special heavy metal poisons over at least one year by his SCAD professor ‘friend’ in his food.. Who later stole his complete everything as he lay dying in hospital. Now my first son,with family, ready to move to Netherlands, had his passport refused by the Feds. All communications between us are no longer possible.US started to poison them but must have stopped because the Dutch are watching them. I live visible in a crowed old area, my business name (mine by birth) on the building. I write. Starting in politics because I was trying to place my America and Netherlands families in context in the wider world, how did Dad fit, how do I, my sons. The why’s of harassment had to be answered, the who’s , the reasons, discovered beyond a shadow of a doubt. I found out. The criminal, completely disinterested massacres of single, targeted people by whatever means, (they used to seem as if normal deaths..no longer) is chillingly normalised and open now. MH17 plane was US done. These mutilations and deaths will be done to Putin long term friends and intimates..As they will be done to choice intimates of the leader of China for both daring to say:”NO!”

This comes to mind because something like this would not have happened under Putin’s watch to the talented young adult children of the Russian elite, honest, responsible classes.

At least so my instincts tell me from what I read, and have just read.

My father was a trusted man in 140 countries and with the Royal Netherlands family and all his old friends. Because he warned the Dutch War Queen never to start the Billderberg Group or the US would take over Europe, she did not! He was slowly poisoned to death by his wife he adored,she forced or be killed too, his stored records of his large business family going back 800 years had his ancestors removed and any from newer archives. His archives will be erased when I am gone wth my brother’s and mine. I think my first son will save his own life as US hegemony is now going down bigtime.

His one son was poisoned in his mother’s womb so he would be born autistic. And unable to join the ancient firm from 1695. He autistic. An extremely precious human being brought by his father up to be able to live to his fullest. In Netherlands he would have a chance, in USA he would not have a chance. He’d be hospitalised as soon as his father was gone and then killed most probably his body studied as mine has been while alive.

The US is actively destroying every European monarch and/or ancient families. UA cahnging histories and human identities means no-one must remember, the books will be destroyed just as Hitler did. Many billions already have been. Google was key to that effort.Burning irreplacable libraries works too.

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